I've been practicing my panning, but being in the the dead of night with bright headlights coming at me or red tail lights moving around on twisty mountain roads is really tough to capture. I don't own a flash yet... and I figure an investment in a tripod that allows me to pan would be ideal. Are these two choices a good way to go? Should I look into other techniques or settings on a Nikon D80?

This is true... I don't want to end up taking pictures of them rolling down the side of the mountain... I'll be sure to check out the S-mode. I haven't a clue as to what to look for in tripods and monopods... I'll see if there some things I can gather through the Thread Topic. A review from Gordon would be most timely!

There's a lot of great roads around California that have an active underground culture of automotive junkies that just want to let it rip around hairpin after hairpin in the middle of the night. In japan, they call it touge.